


Thursday's Child

by ausmac



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-08
Updated: 2011-05-08
Packaged: 2017-10-19 03:58:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/196619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ausmac/pseuds/ausmac
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack meets the Doctor again, just not the one he knew.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thursday's Child

The first time he saw the Doctor in a very long time was the time he wasn't supposed to remember seeing the Doctor after he saw him, as it wasn't quite his Doctor. Though, at the time, he rather wished it had been…

Jack Harkness had been stuck on Earth for around eighty years; it was the 1960's, and it was a decade he was enjoying a lot more than many of the ones that had gone before. How could he not enjoy a time of free love, flower children, doing your thing, smoking pot and public smooching?

He was in Liverpool, England investigating the Beatles and rediscovering the joys of bacon butties when he caught sight of the familiar blue box. His heart jumped at sight of it, sitting down a little alleyway and he thought: Yes!

And then the door opened and the person who emerged looked nothing like the person he expected.

Young, blonde, wearing beige and Jack stepped forward in alarm. "Hullo, who are you and what are you doing with the TARDIS?"

The young man turned towards him and Jack's next thought was: blue eyes. He's got big blue eyes. The young man smiled, tilted his head. "And who are you?"

Jack held out his hand and produced his widest grin. "Captain Jack Harkness."

The young man took the hand a little gingerly, and gave a hesitant half smile in return. "Hullo Captain Jack Harkness. Do we know each other?"

"Well, if you're who I think you are, that's not the easy question it seems." He held the hand for a moment longer than courtesy required, then let go. "You ARE the Doctor, yes?"

"That's right. Now, I have a fairly good memory and I really don't remember you."

"That's because we haven't met. I'm assuming you're an earlier regeneration of my Doctor."

"Ah." The Doctor nodded, tucking his hands behind his back. "That would explain it. We have a PTP going on."

"Eh?"

"Personal Timeline Paradox. You knowing me before I know you. Happens sometimes in time travel."

Jack stepped a little closer, fascinated. "That could be a bit screwy, timeline-wise."

"Well, it will probably fix itself, we'll see. I was just off for a walk to get some supplies. Care to join me for some lunch?"

Jack grinned and slid a hand under the Doctor's arm. "I know just the thing. Big strong cup of tea and a couple of bacon butties."

They retired to a nearby cafe where Jack consumed tea and butties and the Doctor contented himself with tea, scones and strawberry jam.

They talked about time, and paradox.

"So how is it we won't remember this meeting?" Jack asked, as he stirred his tea.

"Being a Time Lord, I have a sort of paradox buffer, I suppose you could call it. If my timelines gets tangled, at the appropriate instance - for example, when you and I do meet - this meeting will be absorbed into that buffer. In effect, the primary timeline will reassert itself."

"And my memory of it?"

"As you're human, my timeline will override yours."

Jack couldn't stop watching that mouth and it didn't take long for the Doctor's perceptive node to kick in.

"So, Captain, what will be or was our relationship? Are you a traveling companion of mine?"

And that little devil, that was never far from the surface, jogged his mental elbow. "Oh yes, and a lot more than that." He smiled, warmly, and stared into the curious blue eyes. "We're very, very good friends."

The Doctor sat a little straighter. "Oh." He licked jam of his finger in a way that was either totally innocent or totally not. "Does that mean what I think it means?"

Jack just smiled, and gently placed his leg against the Doctor's beneath the table. "It does if you think it means we were or are or will be lovers. I'm quite flexible. Timewise."

The jam was all gone but the Doctor continued to lick his fingers in a distracted way. He stopped, suddenly aware of what he was doing, and grasped his hands together, laying them on the table. "I imagine you must be, if we are, indeed, as you say, lovers." He frowned. "I must be quite flexible myself, in the future. In my attitudes, that is."

Jack took hold of the Doctor's hands and held them in his. "Let's just say, you're a bit more experimental. I'm a little dominant, and you seem to like that."

He watched the pupils enlarge, cat-like. "I do?"

"You do." He stroked the clasped fingers gently, treading carefully in a situation both fragile and fascinating. "You found out you liked to be touched in certain ways, and that I'm very good at touching you."

He had the full attention, then, of that ferociously bright intellect, that tested every assertion it came across. "If that's true, why did we separate?"

He'd been ready for that one. "I think you were starting to feel a little too settled in our relationship. I don't think you've ever liked to see yourself being in the same place. Whether its a planet or a time, or a relationship."

It was deception, of course, but he rationalised it by the knowledge that if the Doctor was right, then his timeline would do its buffering and he wouldn't remember it. And as for Jack - well, to quote my old mum, if I don't write it down, it never happened....

The Doctor stared at his hands, lightly wrapped in Jack's, his gaze unfocused as if he were impossibly trying to remember something that hadn't happened yet. Or maybe he was just fascinated by the sight of his hands being held by someone else. Finally he looked up, and Jack realised he was blushing.

"Would you like to visit the TARDIS with me? I imagine it's a bit different to the one you know. A younger version, rather like me."

Jack took in a long, slow breath as his heart rapped in anticipation. "I'd like that."

They left the cafe and walked back to the alley, and Jack followed the Doctor inside. He stopped, surprised. It seemed smaller, brighter, with its clean white walls and neat console. It did almost feel younger; this TARDIS had not flown through the ashes of a dying homeworld, hadn't fought the Daleks and felt its Lord die quite so many times.

He looked down a passageway, opened a door and found a storage cupboard. "Oh, this was a bedroom." He closed the door, turned to see the Doctor watching him. "Does the TARDIS go through regenerations as well?"

"Sometimes. Sometimes I change her, sometimes she changes herself. Living ship, you know." He smiled, and learned forward across a railing. "So tell me about us, Captain Jack."

And Jack realised, suddenly, that it was wrong. Very wrong. Even though it was the perfect self-cleaning con, Jack knew he couldn't carry it through. He swung around, leant back against the wall and took a moment or two to feel ashamed. "There was no us, Doc. I lied, sorry."

"Lied?" The Doctor blinked, frowned. "You mean, you made it up? Why?"

"Because I wanted it. Really bad. I wanted you - him - but I doubt he wanted me. Unrequited lust isn't that much fun." He straightened and walked forward. "I guess I better be going."

As he moved to pass the Doctor, a hand came out and caught his arm. "Jack, stay a moment."

He stopped, waited, turned to see blue eyes watching him with a sort of gentle interest. "What for?"

"You say we weren't - aren't - lovers. But did you do anything?"

Jack sucked in a breath, let it out as a sigh. "I held him."

"Show me how."

Jack turned slowly, uncertain. "You want me --"

"Show me how you held me."

With a strangled groan, Jack held his arms open and the Doctor moved into them. Arms wrapped around, and he was holding and being held, a perfect fit. So right.

"What else did you do?" came the soft question, and he said:

"I kissed him."

A whisper. "Show me how."

Jack dipped his head, their lips came together - melted together - soft mouth, turning and meeting his at just the right angle and he tasted so very good. Jack moved his lips up and over chin and cheek, tasting him, sensing him; the odour of crushed apples and clean air, the feel of a warm body pressed against him, in his arms, arms around him. He whispered, his breath stirring golden hair.

"I'd have been your right hand, your guardian, your warrior, for all my life. I would have stood in the darkness with you."

Lips touched his forehead, his cheeks, his eyes and, once again, his mouth. "I understand. But perhaps you do, Captain Jack Harkness. Perhaps at the bottom of my psyche I know, when I'm in that darkness you speak of, that you're out there somewhere. That someone who cares for me is waiting. Perhaps that's what gets me through."

When it became unbearable, Jack moved away, smiled into sad, gentle eyes and headed for the door. He didn't look back as the familiar sound of a TARDIS in flight echoed down the alley.

And one day, when his past and his future collided, his memories of that other Doctor faded away.


End file.
